The Whatcom Excavator

O' Canada!    Well done - kudos.   This a real blow for freedom and science.

"Deniers," are WE?    If so, we're in mighty good company.  The warmist fraud is so extensive that Nobel laureate  Ivan Giaever has described man-made global warming as a "new religion."  On 13 September 2011 Giaever resigned from the American Physical Society over its official position that "the evidence is incontrovertible."     Honest scientists know that skepticism is a virtue, not a vice.

Bellingham and Whatcom County - look north for a little wisdom.   Wake up, get real.   Act with common sense and summon some courage.   Dump ICLEI, and defund the kooky "sustainability" eco-activism that is eroding our county's unique character.   It's tapping the strength of our free market, and stomping our ingenuity and civil rights.  Honesty and realism offer a better direction toward a brighter and more productive future.

American Thinker
November 28, 2011
Thomas Lifson

Canada is reported to be planning to announce it is leaving the Kyoto Protocols, intended to reduce CO2 emissions in the hope of halting global warming, which hasn't occurred in the last decade, according to theories which lack actual scientific proof. The private Canadian CTV television network reports:

Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned.

The Harper government has tentatively planned an announcement for a few days before Christmas, CTV's Roger Smith reported Sunday evening.

The developments come as Environment Minister Peter Kent prepares for a climate conference in Durban, South Africa that opens on Monday, with delegates from 190 countries seeking a new international agreement for cutting emissions.

Issues on the agenda include extending the Kyoto emission targets, a move being championed by Christiana Figueres, head of the UN climate secretariat.

Kent said in the House of Commons on Nov. 22 he won't sign a document at the Durban conference that extends the Kyoto targets.

"Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us," Kent said

The global warming emperor has no clothes, and now a member of the G-8 is going to be saying so, if this report is correct.

Hat tip: John McMahon,  iOwnTheWorld.com

Not long ago WE reported on Bellingham's upcoming regulations and restrictions for electric car charging stations.   Knowing that the Governor rammed legislation through Olympia (that deal is done), we knew it wouldn't be long before similar regs would appear on the county docket.   Sure enough, they have.   You can link to the 55-page county Planning & Development Services staff report below.

But first, understand how much of a colossal snowjob is being passed-off as a green revolution, in the name of "innovation."   Electric cars are energy hogs.   In some cases, they have energy appetites as big as midsize SUV's.   To quote a recent expose,

"... one needs to multiply the EPA MPGe by .365 to get a number that truly compares fossil fuel use of an electric car with a traditional gasoline engine car on an apples to apples basis.  In the case of the Fisker Karma, we get a true MPGe of 19.  This makes it worse than even the city rating of a Ford Explorer SUV."

Fisker Karma Electric Car Gets Worse Mileage Than an SUV
November 6, 2011
Rage Against The Kakistocracy

Government should not be allowed to pick winners and losers. It can't be trusted to be honest about it. This article from Forbes illustrates the problem:

The Fisker Karma electric car, developed mainly with your tax money so that a bunch of rich VC’s wouldn’t have to risk any real money, has rolled out with an nominal EPA MPGe of 52 in all electric mode (we will ignore the gasoline engine for this analysis).

Not bad? Unfortunately, it’s a sham. This figure is calculated using the grossly flawed EPA process that substantially underestimates the amount of fossil fuels required to power the electric car, as I showed in great depth in an earlier Forbes.com article. In short, the EPA methodology leaves out, among other things, the conversion efficiency in generating the electricity from fossil fuels in the first place [by assuming perfect conversion of the potential energy in the fuel to electricity, the EPA is actually breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics]. (Continue Reading...)

The free market works on the principle of natural selection. It has no agenda. Politicians, statists and bureaucrats always have an agenda. They cannot abide allowing citizens to make their own choices. There's always the risk that We the People might make choices that the illiberal control freaks might not agree with.   (more...)

Proposed Whatcom County Electric Car Charging Station Ordinance

The complete 55-page Planning and Development staff report, with its complete "Exhibit A" can be read here.   Don't expect much of this to change as it bumbles through the "public review" process.  The exhibit was borrowed from the Seattle area, however misfitting.   Contributors to that masterwork included self serving electric car lobbyists like “ECOtality North America,” “Avista Utilities,” and the “Seattle Electric Vehicle Association,”  and it says “prepared with assistance from” Plug In America.    How's that for an objective source?

WE grieve for science, practicality, and common sense.   There really is no "free lunch," except of course at the public trough.

Just when WE thought things couldn't get any loonier in these parts, we found this nasty little call to action from Axnerd at this "Latte Republic" blog post:

   "It is time to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, folks."

And, talk around town is that "Occupy" plans to descend on County Council Wednesday, November 9th.   (WE recommend your going to see DeWeese at the Northwest Business Club or CAPR instead.   What he has to say will be much more illuminating.)

Information dredged by Hot Green Tea about the courthouse action:

"Occupy Whatcom County Council supported by Councilman Mann??? and City Council Candidate Cathy Lehman???"
November 7, 2011
Sipping Hot Green Tea with Shelly

As always, their words speak louder than mine.

YiT,  Shelly   [Editorial note:  YiT = "yours in truth"]

Occupy Whatcom County CouncilShare · Public Event Wednesday, November 9 · 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Location Walk from Maritime to County Courthouse 311 Grand Ave Bellingham, WA

Created By #occupybellingham

More Info We need 99 people to gather at the #OB Encampment at 6:30. There will be a brief orientation at the encampment, and then an even more brief walk from the Encampment to the Whatcom County Courthouse... where there will be warmth. Warmth and democracy.   Each person is allowed 3 minutes to speak about any issue they feel is important.

Whatcom County Council has been the #1 benefactor of the control-freak culture, funding "sustainability" NGO's on their transition mission.    My they enjoy their evening with the mob.